Book Cougars Podcast: Two Middle-Aged Women on the Hunt for a Good Read Podcast

Welcome to Episode 236, where we are both back at Book Cougars HQ and happy to be sitting across the table from one another again.

We did some Biblio Adventuring since the last episode! Emily joined the Pride celebration in Middletown, CT which kicked off with Drag Storytime at Wesleyan RJ Julia Bookstore. She also had a lovely visit to Big Red Books in Nyack, NY. Chris was back in the Midwest where she visited the Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library, Museum, and Boyhood Home in Abilene, Kansas before heading to Red Cloud, Nebraska for the 70th Annual Willa Cather Spring Conference.

We managed to read a few books between/during our adventures (love those audiobooks on road trips!): FINDING GRACE by Loretta Rothschild (release date 7/8/2025) THE PROFESSOR’S HOUSE by Willa Cather THE BOOKSTORE FAMILY by Alice Hoffman 
STILL WRITING by Dani Shapiro THE EMPEROR OF GLADNESS by Ocean Vuong THE GOOD HOUSE by Tananarive Due, our second quarter readalong pick

Thanks to the sponsors of this episode: Deb Miller, author of FORGET THE FAIRY TALE AND FIND YOUR HAPPINESS, and Jen Michalski, author of ALL THIS CAN BE TRUE.

Continuing our year of reading Ghost Stories, we are excited to announce the third quarter readalong pick. Because we chose a shorter novel this time, we decided to include the story that inspired it as a companion read for Q3: “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. The novel that is the official pick is another one with the word “House” in the title. You’ll have to listen to find out or peek at the show notes.

As always, thank you so much for listening and we wish you lots of Happy Reading!

https://www.bookcougars.com/blog-1/2025/episode236

Chris and Emily recorded Episode 235 over Zoom. Emily was holding down the fort at Book Cougars HQ in Connecticut and Chris dialed in from Pittsburgh, PA. She was on the road back to Connecticut from Illinois and had some fun Biblio Adventures to share including a visit to Van Wert, Ohio where she visited The Brumback Library and had lunch with Linda, the BC’s librarian. She also visited the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh and got to browse Caliban Bookshop. Emily saved the day or at least story time at Wesleyan R.J. Julia. She was there with her daughter to share her granddaughter’s first bookstore story time and ended up hosting said story time!

Books we’ve read since the last episode and discuss include:

— RENEGADE GIRLS: A QUEER TALE OF ROMANCE AND RABBLE-ROUSING by Nora Neus and illustrated by Julie Robine — THE GOOD HOUSE by Tananarive Due — A FEVER IN THE HEARTLAND: THE KU KLUX KLAN'S PLOT TO TAKE OVER AMERICA, AND THE WOMAN WHO STOPPED THEM byTimothy Egan — A DOG IN GEORGIA by Lauren Grodstein (forthcoming 8/5) — THE GREAT GATSBY AT 100 by Sheila Liming — THE WRITING LIFE by Annie Dillard

This episode’s ghost story is “The Ghost in the Cap’n Brown House” by Harriet Beecher Stowe from THE PENGUIN BOOK OF GHOST STORIES FROM ELIZABETH GASKELL TO AMBROSE BIERCE.

We also talk about meeting up for coffee with Deanna (a listener from Virginia), our upcoming jaunts, and mention the books we’ve chosen to kick off the #BigBookSummer Reading Challenge.

Many thanks to Shirley Russak Wachtel, author of THE BAKER OF LOST MEMORIES, for sponsoring this episode!

We hope that if you go on a road trip this summer, you’re able to drive at your preferred pace, on your preferred type of road, and listen to the audiobook of your choice.

Happy Reading!

Welcome to Episode 234, featuring an Author Spotlight with memoirist Elissa Altman. We talk about her writing process, including the use of two particular desks that she sits at depending on the focus of her work. We also get into the specifics of journals vs. diaries and, of course, we asked her about writing implements! Her new book, PERMISSION: THE NEW MEMOIRIST AND THE COURAGE TO CREATE, is out now.

In our Just Read segment we talk about books in several different genres. Emily finished a novel, Chris read a poetry collection and a work of literary criticism, and we did a joint read of a short story in our Penguin Classics collection of ghost stories: LEAVING by Roxana Robinson WHEN I WAS STRAIGHT by Julie Marie Wade JANE AUSTEN’S BOOKSHELF by Rebecca Romney “GREEN TEA” by Sheridan Le Fanu

We recap an exciting joint jaunt to NYC to meet up with Aunt Ellen, where we saw the Belle de Costa Green exhibit at The Morgan Library & Museum and attended Selected Shorts: Classics with a Twist with Meg Wolitzer and Friends at Symphony Space.

As always, there are more books and Biblio Adventures discussed than we mention in this blurb. Special thanks to Janet Clare author of TRUE HOME, for sponsoring this episode.

Happy Listening and Happy Reading!

https://www.bookcougars.com/blog-1/2025/episode234

On Episode 233, we are thrilled to welcome back, MATTHEW GOODMAN! We are so grateful that Zoom and, before them, Skype (remember them?) opened up the world to conversations with authors. That said, there’s still nothing like sitting in the same room with other humans talking about books, ideas, and historic happenings. Matthew joined us at Book Cougars HQ here in Connecticut to discuss his new book, PARIS UNDERCOVER: A WARTIME STORY OF COURAGE, FRIENDSHIP, AND BETRAYAL, now available from Ballantine Books. The book is a narrative history about Etta Shiber and Kate Bonnefous, two middle-aged women who smuggled out British servicemen from behind enemy lines, their arrest, Etta’s best-selling memoir about their efforts, and the price Kate paid for that book. Don’t miss our conversation with Matthew at the end of this episode. Paris Undercover is about history, but it speaks to our current time.

Some highlights in this episode:

We both have started reading around in THE PORTABLE FEMINIST READER, edited by Roxane Gay, starting with “If Men Could Menstruate” by Gloria Steinem. Chris also read “Being Female” by Eileen Myles. Emily finished the novel FOOD PERSON by Adam Roberts, and Chris read the graphic memoir EPHEMERA by Briana Loewinsohn.

It was also time for another ghost story from THE PENGUIN BOOK OF GHOST STORIES: From Elizabeth Gaskell to Ambrose Bierce. We both thought “The Signal Man” by Charles Dickens was “meh,” although it had some good lines and moments.

In Biblio Adventures, we recap seeing Maura Casey at Bank Square Books in Mystic, our Independent Bookstore Day jaunts to Breakwater Books in Guilford and R.J. Julia Booksellers in Madison, CT, and Emily’s volunteer experience at Cherry Jubilee in NYC.

We had such a fun time recording this episode and hope you enjoy it. Happy Reading!

https://www.bookcougars.com/blog-1/2025/episode233

We were thrilled to talk with author Eowyn Ivey about her new book, BLACK WOODS BLUE SKY. During our conversation, Eowyn shared her writing habits, including a description of her writing cottage, and tells us about her reading life. Topics ranged from motherhood on the page and in real life, her family’s literary life in Alaska, and Proust vs Joyce.

In our own reading lives, we both read and discuss “The North Mail” by Amelia B. Edwards from THE PENGUIN BOOK OF GHOST STORIES: from Elizabeth Gaskell to Ambrose Bierce. We gave this one four paws up. Or should it be eight paws? Whatever the rating system should be for cougars, we both enjoyed Edwards’s story. It has a good creep factor and atmosphere, both indoors and outside.

Other books we’ve enjoyed include novels HAPPY LAND by Dolan Perkins-Valdez and THE GRIFFIN SISTERS GREATEST HITS by Jennifer Weiner; a quartet of novellas, OLD NEW YORK by Edith Wharton; and two works of nonfiction: STORYWORTHY: Engage, Teach, Persuade, and Change Your Life Through the Power of Storytelling by Matthew Dicks and DEEP WORK: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World by Cal Newport.

Big thanks to this episode’s sponsor, James Crews and Brad Peacock. The new poetry collection they co-edited is available on May 6: LOVE IS FOR ALL OF US: Poems of Tenderness and Belonging from the LGBTQ+ Community and Friends (with illustrations by Lisa Congdon).

We also recap a great Biblio Adventure to the Mark Twain House to hear Ethan Rutherford (author of NORTH SUN, OR THE VOYAGE OF THE WHALESHIP ESTHER) in conversation with Amity Gaige about her new novel, HEARTWOOD. Chris also got to attend THE MOUNT’S virtual book club discussion of Edith Wharton’s A SON AT THE FRONT and Willa Cather’s ONE OF OURS, led by Anne Schuyler and Julie Olin-Ammentorp.

As always, there are more books inside this episode than we can fit here! Enjoy, and be sure not to miss our conversation with Eowyn Ivey at the end.

Oh, and reminder: our second quarter readalong pick is THE GOOD HOUSE by Tananarive Due (Zoom discussion on 6/8 and also on Goodreads).

Thanks for listening, and happy reading!

https://www.bookcougars.com/blog-1/2025/episode232

The Good House Goodreads readalong https://www.bookcougars.com/blog-1/2025/episode231

Penguin Book of Ghost Stories Goodreads thread https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/23017532-ghost-stories